Felt Dogs is an adorable craft book that teaches you how to make little dogs from felt. The book is packed full of different breeds to delight any dog lover.

The book teaches a technique called needle felting. There is a list of all the tools and supplies that you will need to make cute dogs. I also loved the step by step photos in the book, which makes it easy for beginners or experts to follow.

And of course, the book is full of such darling photos it’s easy to forget that the book is about crafting. I’ve spent plenty of time just looking at the photos and dreaming about making the cute little dogs.

Sadly I could not find any proper felt (at least not locally). I’m dying to try my hand at making a dog or two, so I’m not giving up. Since I can’t show you one that I have made just yet, be sure to have a look at this fun felt dog making night they had at Chronicle Books!

This is a FUN product, for you and your dog! The Clearview Dog Fence Solution is a window that you can easily install in your fence so your pooch can get a nice view of the world beyond the yard!

This could be so fun for a dog (or even kids) to have! And yes, we have one to giveaway to a lucky reader. Since our fence is chain link, we haven’t had a chance to try the product personally, but it sure seems awesome!

Installing the Clearview window is an easy DIY project that can improve the quality of your backyard for your pets. The Clearview will be available for purchase on DogFenceDIY as of September 30th, but you will get a chance to try it before it hits the market! Ready to enter? This giveaway is for those in the USA only. Use the form below to enter:

One of the most fun parts about Valentine’s Day, besides celebrating the ones you love, is getting Valentines cards.

When I was little we used to make our own “mailboxes” so our classmates could put cards in them when February 14th arrived. It was such a fun time of the year creating “mailboxes” and putting together cards to give out.

Now that I’m an adult, my Valentines usually come in the grown up mailbox, but that doesn’t make it any less fun!

But why should we humans have all the fun?

We love our dogs, shouldn’t they get a special treat on the day we celebrate love too? Why not make a Valentine’s Day mailbox for your special furry friend?

Fun, inexpensive, and easy to make, this Valentine’s Day mailbox for your dog is sure to be a hit with humans and dogs alike! Filled with Milk-Bone Dog Snacks, your dog will be even more excited than they are when the regular mailman arrives!

The first thing that I did was to remove the mailbox flag, and then trace the flag, doors and box onto the Valentine papers that were going to cover the box. I then cut out the papers so I could have all my pieces ready for gluing to the mailbox. An alternative would be to paint the box first, and then embellish it when the paint is dry. I liked the idea of having different patterns peeking through, so paper was my choice. Get as close as you can to the edges, but don’t worry, it doesn’t have to be perfect.

Once it is covered with the base of paper (or paint), the fun part starts! Embellish it to your hearts content! I wanted to make sure that everyone knew that this mailbox was for Baby. What better way of doing that than having her photo on the box. I also found a rhinestone ‘B’ to put on the front.

I attached red heart doilies using a glue stick and some Mod Podge over the top. Once they were dry I added the stickers and the glitter sticker tape. When everything was done, I packed the inside with some heart print tissue paper and plenty of Milk Bone dog snacks! As you can see, it’s pretty cute. Don’t forget to put the mailbox flag back on so your pooch will know that they have mail!

From now until February 13th Milk-Bone is giving away fabulous prizes! If you find a red colored Milk Bone with the word LOVE on it in your box you’ll win a year supply of Milk-Bone dog snacks (qualifying boxes are specially marked). You can also enter online for your chance to win a year supply of Milk-Bone dog snacks.

See other fun ways to Say It With Milkbone:

This post is sponsored by Milk-Bone on behalf of the BlogPaws Blogger Network. I am being compensated for helping spread the word about The Say It with Milk-Bone Campaign, but 4 The Love of Animal only shares information we feel is relevant to our readers. Milk-Bone is not responsible for the content of this article.

I’d like to introduce you to one of my two most favorite males on the planet: This is Cyrus.

And yes this is the first thing I see every single morning. A fluffy Maine Coon with no sense of boundaries. All up in my grill. Like my husband says: ‘He doesn’t even care.’

After he walks all over me and eliminates all hope of just a few more minutes of sleep, he trots off to his #1 hangout spot.

Cy, more commonly referred to at our house simply as ‘The Boy,’ has loved sinks, tubs and showers since he was a kitten and that is only one of the many unique qualities that I love about him.

In case you can’t already tell, I absolutely adore The Boy. And because I adopted him as a 6-week-old kitten when I was 15 and he turns 17 in 2014, I have lived with him longer than I lived without him. In short, I’d do anything for him.

Getting back to the focus of today’s discussion; my husband and I recently installed new hardwood flooring in our first home (yay!) and we’re trying to do whatever we can to keep them looking like new for as long as possible.

One aspect we realized we’d have to address is The Boy’s eating situation because there’s nothing in between his food and water ‘station’ and our brand new flooring.

Notice the little bit of chicken by his paw. Surely he’ll grab that before he wanders away, right?

Nope. Not a chance. He doesn’t even care!

Something had to be done so I bought a new set-up for him that includes an updated bowl and a placemat.

Pretty boring, right? Plus, the first drop of water or food on the placemat and the whole thing’s ruined unless I make it waterproof. But perhaps most importantly, The Boy deserves better than this blah bowl station!

And so, a personalized and laminated placemat for Cyrus is in order.

Whether you have your furry baby’s food station on hardwoods (like we do), tile or laminate flooring, the basic premise remains the same: There’s no reason you can’t pamper your pet and protect your flooring at the same time!

Check out how I put together Cy’s custom placemat and maybe it will help spark some ideas for creating one of your own for the beloved pet in your life.

DIY Laminated Pet Placemat

For the mat, I used a 12″ x 12″ sheet of woven paper that resembled a little jute canvas. For the personalization aspect, I used a set of Martha Stewart stencils and stencil brush along with DecoArt’s Slate Gray acrylic craft paint.

Start by laying out your design before you apply any paint. I wanted Cyrus’ name in the bottom center so I marked the edges of each letter of his name with the stencils and a pencil first so I could get the spacing accurate.

From here, I lined up each letter with their corresponding ‘shadows’ and taped down the top edge. To keep everything level, I matched the bottom edge of the stencil sheet to the bottom of the paper mat.

Take your stencil brush and dip it into the paint to load up the tip. Dab off the excess and carefully apply the paint to the inside of the stencil.

You can avoid the dreaded ‘stencil under bleed’ by applying several light coats of paint rather than one heavy application and only press the brush in an up and down blotting motion.

Once I had completed his entire name, I moved over to the bottom left corner and used a cookie cutter as my ‘stencil’ to create a cat silhouette.

I did the same thing to the bottom right corner with a paw print cookie cutter.

For each of the top corners, I stenciled a little flourish that actually reminded me of cat tails!

Since he’s The Boy, I wanted it to look like the placemat belonged to a boy cat but I also wanted it to look like the rest of my style around the house.

Once you are completely happy with your design, the only thing left to do to ensure the placemat does its job facilitating mess-less floors is laminate it.

I am thrilled with how it turned out and can’t wait for The Boy to wander out of the shower to come give it his paw stamp of approval!

What kind of personalized pet mat are you going to make?

Rheney Williams adds a DIY element to all of her home décor pieces on floors. Besides writing about fabulous floor crafts for Home Depot, Rheney is busy updating her Charleston, S.C., home with all manner of custom Lowcountry touches.